Campaigns to Remember
6 05 20082008 will be remembered as an election year which hosted one of the most closely fought battles for the Democratic candidate nomination. Today the primaries for the final two ‘prized’ states – North Carolina and Indiana - were decided. As Senators Obama and Clinton have continued to garner support of millions of Americans in recent months, we at Medill IMC have been priveleged to be so close to the action. In fact, the races for both the Republican and Democratic nominations have been fascinating due to the increased usage of digital media by both parties. As a result, students at IMC have been able to study what roles traditional and new media are taking in these exhilarating branding campaigns.
One of the exercises we conducted for Prof. Clarke Caywood’s Communities class was to evaluate the various kinds of efforts being made through new media by potential candidates for both the Republican and Democratic parties. We examined how the nominees used outlets like Facebook, Digg, YouTube, etc. to generate mass support and campaign funds. We also made assessments of how the candidates could have improved in this regard. In addition, we were taught how candidates in the past had branded themselves and so we got to analyze how the electioneering landscape has evolved over the years. The activity was another piece of evidence of how the curriculum at Medill IMC exposes students to current practical application of the latest marketing tools.
Try visiting some of the nominees’ Web sites. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much digital media is playing a part in the build-up to the 2008 U.S. elections.
……….Ateeq Abdul Rauf
